Paul Forrest and Melissa Jane Forrest v Insurance Australia Limited t/as NRMA Insurance

The case involves Paul Forrest and Melissa Jane Forrest, the applicants, suing Insurance Australia Limited trading as NRMA Insurance, the respondent. The applicants seek preliminary discovery to determine if they have sufficient information to decide whether to commence proceedings against the respondent. The application was heard in the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The applicants want the respondent to disclose the existence of an investigation report and partially disclose its contents, which they believe is relevant to their decision on whether to proceed with a claim.

The court had to decide whether the applicants had enough information to determine if they should start a proceeding against the respondent. Another issue was whether the Markus discretion, which allows a court to refuse discovery if it considers it just to do so, applied to preliminary discovery. The court also had to consider whether the disclosure of the existence of an investigation report and partial disclosure of its contents were relevant to exercising the Markus discretion.

The court held that the Markus discretion does apply to preliminary discovery. The court found that the disclosure of the existence of an investigation report and partial disclosure of its contents were relevant to the exercise of the Markus discretion. The court concluded that the applicants did not have sufficient information to decide whether to proceed with a claim, and therefore the respondent was not required to disclose the existence of the investigation report or its contents.

The court granted the respondent leave to file in court the affidavit of Carlos Jaramillo sworn on 22 March 2012. The court also ordered that the respondent pay the applicants' costs of the application.